A local hero from Vancouver comes to Bay St.
Foie gras? Caviar? Truffles? Mais non! Celebrity chef Rob Feenie — the Vancouver superstar who is bringing his popular restaurant chain to Toronto sometime in the new year — may be trained in classical French cooking, but what he’s planning for the local culinary scene is less fussy, less fancy and has more West Coast Zen.
“Pizza, fish tacos,” Feenie says, naming some of the dishes that may appear on the menu when Cactus Club Café makes its debut in the financial district in 2013.
“Foie gras, fish tacos and truffles are very much a part of who I am. That’s never going to change. But these foods are enjoyed in a different way.”
For a man who became the first Canadian to win Iron Chef America, who once threatened to take down Toronto celebrity chef Susur Lee and who has earned many restaurant awards, Feenie was surprisingly easygoing when he visited the Star’s test kitchen last week.
He was in town to announce the new restaurant venture and plug his latest cookbook, Rob Feenie’s Casual Classics: Everyday Recipes for Family and Friends.
Hair gelled loosely into a faux-hawk, Feenie breezed past the stove, slipping on his apron with few words and less fanfare, exuding the laid-back calm that permeates the recipes in his fourth book and, he says, the atmosphere in his restaurants.
“I’ve mellowed,” he says, elongating his vowels. “This is stuff I cook for my family at home.”
Feenie joined Cactus Restaurants Ltd., a 22-restaurant chain, as executive chef five years ago.
“I’ve mellowed. This is stuff I cook for my family at home.” ROB FEENIE